FACEBOOK DRAMA

People on Facebook are forever posting videos of animals. At any time of day or night, you can log in and watch hunters — or passersby — rescue a deer/moose/bear/duck from some dire situation. Manmade hazards are at the root of most of these disasters. A bear’s head gets stuck in a pail. A deer is entangled with fencing. A duck’s beak is clamped shut in the vise grip of a plastic carrier. 

The videos are only a couple of minutes long. But there’s drama aplenty! A single hunter tries to grab and pull the pail, but oh no! The bear is fighting and trying to escape. Three other rescuers show up. By now the deer is frantic, eyes rolling, legs flailing. 

Somebody arrives with a saw/tin snips/knife and begins trying to cut through the prison. The animal may die of pure fear by this time. Finally, two of the rescue team hold the animal still. The sawing/cutting continues until…AT LAST! The animal is free and runs off into the woods. The bear doesn’t stop and wave. The deer never looks back. This is not a Disney movie. 

 Why do we find these stories so mesmerizing? And, by the way, who’s filming all these rescues? Or was it all a set up? Did somebody entrap the bear ( for instance) with honey in the pail? (Wasn’t that a Winnie the Pooh story plot?) 

 Only 2% of animal life on this planet is “wild.” I don’t know why that feels relevant here. Maybe you can figure it out. 

 I stopped at a red light intersection last week. Utility wires crisscrossed overhead and when I looked up, a mother squirrel was running down one section of wire. Two adorable baby squirrels were following several feet behind her. 

 Mom came to a wire junction and turned 90 degrees and continued on toward the trees but when babies got to the junction, they came to full-on stop. They didn’t seem to know what to do. Or maybe they suddenly got scared. 

 By now, mom was a distance down the wire. Then she stopped and turned around. I couldn’t hear from inside the car if she made any noise nor did I notice any other signal. But she certainly waited for the babies. 

Sure enough, they figured out how to make the turn and came scampering across the wire toward her. The light turned green. When I looked in the rear view mirror, the three squirrels were nearly across the wires to the trees. 

 I didn’t video anything.

 ```` My new favorite word: senesce….I am deteriorating….elegantly.

Our barn, 2012

The barn, summer, 2021

FRIENDLY CONVERSATION

Yesterday at Starbucks, Beverly asked me about “hope.” Actually, she didn’t exactly “ask” — she said (and this is a broad paraphrase:) 

“Medical professionals are finding that people who have hope manage illness and trauma better than those who do not.” 

You might wonder if Beverly is a particularly philosophical, well-informed woman. (Yes.) 

You also might wonder if this is usual conversation for us to have in a Starbucks over a decaf Latte with extra foam. (Yes again) 

You might ask yourself, “how would I respond to that statement?” 

In this particular case, I mentally rushed off with some flight of word excrement. I do that a lot. I wish I could be smarter. Nearly always that means shutting up and thinking before spewing. 

I’m not the only one who suffers from this disease. I notice it a lot, especially among men who don’t seem to have a knack for casual (or philosophical) conversation. Instead, they are geared for presenting solo recitations. 

I don’t mean to be sexist. It simply appears to be how men are taught. Women are taught to apply make up.

I stopped by Beverly’s house this morning. Twenty-five years ago, she planted a forest pansy redbud tree in a small garden space beside the entry to her house. It outgrew the space and was cut down last year. 

Beverly is an excellent gardener but after twenty-five years, plants sometimes need to be thinned or even removed. This isn’t wasteful. Nor is it evidence of having made an error in space planning. It just is what it is — part of the gardener’s — and plants’ — life cycle. 

People’s too? Although I don’t know about the “thinning or removing” part. I would like to lose 10% of my body weight. I read that thinner old people are generally healthier. The “happy fat person” is a myth. 

A thinner me might have fewer arthritic pains. Do plants have “growing pains?” They certainly stop thriving when they get too crowded — a certain similarity, don’t you think? 

The tree stump was left in the ground at Beverly’s house. Sure enough, forest pansy tree sprouts are coming up from the stump and now they are about sixteen inches high with the tell-tell mahogany heart-shaped leaves. 

Beverly is waiting for another full-on, forest pansy tree which she is sure will grow — it’s only a matter of time. She will water and fertilize. Redbuds are notoriously quick growing trees and this one might become a good sized — bush? 

Beverly is my age. She doesn’t have enough years left to observe the miraculous resurrection of a statuesque tree standing in the corner garden in place of an abandoned stump. 

That’s hope for you! 

That’s a gardener for you!

 ````````` VALIDATION IS FOR PARKING….

This is a forest pansy redbud tree.

New leafs